A volcano eruption near a populated area in Iceland could be 'much larger' than previous events, officials warned as defences were quickly overrun this morning.
The Icelandic Civil Defence warned that the eruption on the Sundhnuksgigar Crater Row could continue to swell given the huge amount of magma built up underground.
Astonishing footage seen on afarTV monitoring cameras showed a long curtain of lava fountains spanning the fissure during the dramatic eruption.
Dr Agust Gudmundsson, from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, told MailOnline that the eruption is expected to be 'bigger than before' as magma has been accumulating underground for several months.
'There was a large volume moving up in the subsurface, indicating there is a lot of magma available... so we expect this to be a bigger one than before,' he said.
While the fissure - so far only around 700 metres long - is still quite small, concern remains for the village at the base of the site.
'The eruption came up relatively far to the south and unfortunately a tiny part of the fissure came up inside, south of the protection barrier,' Dr Gudmundsson explained.
'Lava is, at the moment, flowing towards the town. It has not reached the town.'
'If the fissure propagates further to the south, closer to the town, then of course it would be very, very grave,' Dr Gudmundsson warned. 'But we hope it doesn't go so far.'
Efforts were underway earlier this morning to evacuate the fishing village of Grindavik.
The five-star Blue Lagoon hotel, at the base of the volcano, was evacuated and all guests moved to other hotels as the eruption began.
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